Oh no, you didn’t think this was going to be easy, did you?
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Hajime Isayama
Translation/Adaptation: Sheldon Drzka
What They Say
TURNING ON THEIR OWN
The Survey Corps sets a cunning trap to capture the mysterious Abnormal Titan that broke through their ranks. As Armin tries to determine the grotesque creature’s identity and purpose, scouts report Titans closing in on all sides! But they don’t seem to be after the humans – instead they’re targeting the Titan!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Never explain your plans to enemy, even if it appears that you have them at a disadvantage. With the female titan caught at the end of the last volume, Levi prepares to capture the pilot inside. Except it soon becomes clear that the survey corps still understands very little about what titans are capable of. They’ve underestimated how in control these human-titans can be when they’ve obviously had more training than Eren has. When the female titan shows that she can call to lesser titans, and executes what appears to be a suicide attempt, the corps has no choice but to split.
The news leaks out to the rest of the survey corps members that the enemy they face may be one of their own. A human hiding in a titan shell, brutally killing other humans. Suddenly everyone could be a sleeper agent, a titan hiding in plain sight. Thankfully, at least no one started suspecting each other. At least not out in the open, not right away.
The female titan has the group outmatched, outwitted, and proceeds to use every trick in the titan book to escape. What looks like a suicide turns into an escape, and attack by a sleeper agent takes out a member of Levi’s close knit group, and from there things go from bad to worse. This really is ‘it gets worse’ the manga. Eren has been the target of the titan all along, and they want him alive.
Eren has grown in a few ways, he can control himself in titan form now, and attacks the female titan head on. The fight between the two human controlled titan confirmed my suspicion of who is in control of the female titan. Eren should be able to figure out the identity of his opponent later, but it’s possible the author is purposefully misleading the audience. All of the shonen protagonist courage in the world can’t help Eren defeat an opponent who has clearly been doing this longer than him and better than him. Despite the tragedy of it all, I have to admit it’s funny watching Eren get eaten for a second time.
The upside to the failure of Eren is we get to watch Levi and Mikasa team up to get him back, and they make a good team that’s fun to watch. Even if the normally calm Mikasa looses her cool and goes into rage mode whenever Eren is in danger.
It’s not often in manga you get to watch the hero be so consistently outmatched. The survey corps never made it to their destination, and the titan they captured escaped. Combined with heavy losses, the group returns to the city to face an uncertain future and an enemy who will stop at nothing to make everyone’s lives a living hell.
In Summary
Attack on Titan is the manga version of ‘whatever can go wrong will go wrong.’ It’s quite clear that the enemy is not only more powerful, but smarter and more ruthless. The abject failure of the survey corps, and the anger of the populace, are only building toward a dismal future for Eren and his friends. I have to wonder though, to what end is the enemy working toward? Societal collapse? Genocide? Chaos? I hope we get some answers about the sleeper agents soon.
Content Grade: B +
Art Grade: C
Package Rating: B
Text/Translation Rating: A
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: September 24th, 2013
MSRP: $10.99
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